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Chinese Crew Completes Manual Docking With Orbiting Module
A few days back, the crew of the Shenzhou 9 were along for the ride as their craft docked to — or rather, was docked to — an orbiting module. On Sunday, the docking procedure was repeated, but under the direction of the Chinese astronauts themselves rather than controllers on the ground.
I love the smell of butthurt American in the morning!
Seriously, can't we congratulate for once?
They tried to join ISS, A certain North American country said "never, never, never!", and it wasn't the Canadians nor Mexico.
The US blocked them from participation in the ISS. They wanted to participate, but weren't allowed to.
Poor means hoping the toothache goes away.
I have to agree with AC's sentiments. "Even the Russians"? WTF? Let me just ask - how many nations, corPorations, and other entities have gone into sPace? How many have docked with anything? How many have made a landing, from which PeoPle walked away, alive and well?
It seems that the list makes uP a rather small, exclusive club.
So, just congratulate the Chinese. I like to bash them when it's deserved. Start a thread on consumer goods, and I'll start the bashing for you. They sell a lot of substandard shit that isn't worth the effort of carrying home if it were given to you. In this case, they've done good. Better than the US can do. We don't even have a frigging sPacecraft anymore. We are reduced to bumming rides from PeoPle who can afford transPortation.
Doesn't that remind you of your high school and/or college days?
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Supposedly this is an advancement on an automated docking. Can someone fill me in or is this just media spin?
, even the Russians managed that.
Very funny. Without the Russians experience with Saljut 7 and MIR there would be no ISS.
Competition is good, and it looks like the Chinese are proving very competitive in the space race. I'm sure there will be those who claim they "stole" the technology, but regardless of how they acquired the ideas, it's still the Chinese people and industry who are making it work. And as we all know from the failed launches of other nations, even having access to an internet full of historical designs and ideas doesn't make space technology work.
Only solid efforts and tenacity do that.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Having grown up on the Florida space coast watching Saturn V's and Space Shuttles since I was 6 - I can see the pride and excitement in the faces of the astronauts and spectators and I remember what that felt like. It's hard for me to not be a little envious. Have we "advanced" now that Obama Administration killed our manned space program (after promising not to BTW) ? I don't know.... Despite the great success of SpaceX I am skeptical that commercialized space will ever make enough money to survive without government subsidies, only time will tell. But congrats to China for a job well done, enjoy it while you can !
ISS is mainly MIR-2 and its assorted bits and bobs. If Russians decide to go and play their own ball and take Mir-2 bits, the rest would deorbit and burn in no time and the Russians would still have a viable space station.
Come on man, give Ps a chance.